GIRLFRIENDS

NINA YUEN

SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN

“They have that “impossible” look. Purple Haze.
They were in and out of focus at the same time.
The rear-screen-projection look.
They were over-determined. Psychologically hyped up.
Artificially defined. Japanese fake.
Times Square cut-up”
RICHARD PRINCE 1*)

A MINIMALISTIC

IMPROVISATION-SYSTEM

A TECHNIQUE TO CREATE A DIALOG OR A SCENE

MINIMAL, REDUCTIVE, BORING, MONOTONOUS are descriptions of minimalism. They could be descriptions of Sabina’s improvisation-system too. AD REINHARDT said: “Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything”. An  improvisation-system is an idea to avoid needing ideas – a couple of rules, replacing a scenario. DONALD JUDD: “That gets rid of the problem of illusionism, … which is riddance of one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art”.

How to create a MORE THAN CASUAL, INTERESTING, HIGHLY CONDENSED CONVERSATION? IMPROVISED and ARTIFICIAL at the same time? NINA YUEN and SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN meet regularly for a limited amount of time. Same place, same time/light-conditions, same looks. Sabina begins with saying or doing something, then Nina reacts to that, then Sabina again, Nina, Sabina, etc. They each operate the camera when its their turn. The main point in this technique is only responding once you have formulated your answer or decided what you will do. This may take a few minutes, hours or longer. In GIRLFRIENDS, Nina and Sabina use a lot of quotes as a method to generate dialog. Also they start new conversation-strings by repeating sentences and actions from problematic previously recorded parts, and continue with different responses: repetition transforms a mistake into a pattern – according to THELONIOUS MONK. It gives the conversation more cohesion and a theme.

Life’s Good SUNDAY MORNING

LG K800 ringtone

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GOGI DZODZUASHVILI

SUNDAY MORNING remakes

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GIRLFRIENDS *1) *2)

SCARS

SABINA: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 hahahaha (laughing)
NINA: …………………………ngchchch (grinning)
SABINA: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 times bitten ….  eeeeh …. by an ET
NINA: this is my fantasyscar. i got it when i was daydreaming on my bicycle and i rode my bike into a barbed wire
SABINA: eeeeh… this is the …fantasy…scar. this is from me, biking …… over a … a piece of… land … and …  i was just … driving my bike with my head in the clouds … and … being … be … haha … hing mit … wi …  being somewhere else with my thoughts …  and riding int theeeehm
NINA: poison ivy
SABINA: think before you speak *3)
NINA: bearclaw
when you go biking in the country, this time – uh – be careful, keep your eyes on the road, because if you stop paying attention, there’s barbed wire around the corner from you …
SABINA:  …t – hhhh… barbed wire, riding directly … hhhh … into the barbed wire
NINA: there’s a … barbed wire right behind you
SABINA: like once i was bike … biking on the road, i was tired, i fell asleep on my bike… i fell asleep on my bike… can you imagine?  biking and falling asleep at the same time?
NINA: this summer when you go biking in the country, don’t … uuuh start daydreaming and thinking of other things, keep your eyes on the road because
SABINA: hhhh …
NINA: there’s a …

HYSTERIA

NINA: i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way i mean it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me like you’re less of a woman *4)
SABINA: more is less – more or less *5) i’ve long been breathing this level of tactical misrepresentation  *6) it’s something that i relate to very easily, it comes naturally to me  *7) …..(sigh)…..
NINA: i’m sorry…..i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way. i mean, it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me, like you’re less of a woman….. *4)
MUSIC cellphone
SABINA: (laughing)

CLEANING

VITAL SIGNS

NINA: every woman i see reminds me of my dead friend
SABINA: dead friend?
elegant, edgy, emotional vision
200% 21st century
i feel sort of hollow behind the eyes
NINA: i was clumsy, cold, bored, blind
looking this way makes it better, looking this way makes it worse
SABINA: oh, really?
MUSIC
SABINA: wow wow wow
DANCE
NINA: you have, i know, gone long and far,
but you remain unchanged,
because the dead are changeless *8)
SABINA: are you saying i’m dead?
NINA: well, let’s not jump to conclusions
…….. a zombie is a mythical creature that appears as a reanimated corpse
SABINA: are you saying i’m dead?
NINA:
obviously you’re not really dead. dead people don’t talk *9)
…….. you have, i know, gone long and far,
but, you remain unchanged,
because the dead are changeless *8)
……….. a zombie is a monster with a hunger for human brains and flesh
SABINA: i’ll swallow your soul, i’ll swallow your soul *10)
NINA: hhhh…hhhh…hhhh…hhhh…hhhh…………….
SABINA: i don’t know what’s happening to me, i’m not alive, i’m not dead, i’m just so … lonely *11)
MUSIC
NINA: your nails are groing
your skin is warm
your belly moves when you breathe
your heart makes a sound
your hair is growing
you have a pulse
there’s air coming out of your nose
your eyes are wet
FIRST AID
NINA: when i die i would like my body and everything i own to be burned at a very hot heat, so that all of my ashes and the ashes of the things i own turn white. then i would like to have a statue of me with my eyes closed, laying on the ground and my ashes scattered over it.

SOCIAL ANOREXIA

SABINA: perhaps …  perhaps we weren’t properly introduced before. my name is SABINA, but you can call me bitch behind my back *12)
NINA: hey, i’m NINA, but i play jenny. now open up and tell me your lovestory, bitch *13)
SABINA: if we hang out, i want to be somewhere familiar, i want to know where the exits are and i want to be allowed to smoke 14*)
NINA: the door is right there and i’ve left it open. but i want you to stay here and relax. i want you to feel like you can tell me anything
SABINA: oh no, no, no, no. i prefer to contain myself within my own insatiable desire *15)
NINA: i know that your surface- frigidity is a defense against your intensity. that’s why i call you the ice queen *16)
SABINA: maybe i’m born with it
NINA: maybe not
…….. i’m sorry … i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way. i mean it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me like you’re less of a woman *4)
MUSIC cellphone
SABINA: … muh … all in a suburb near you *17)
NINA: …. oh no, no, no, no. i prefer to contain myself within my own insatiable desire *15)
SABINA: i know your surface-frigidity is a defense against your intensity. that’s why i call you the ice queen  *16)

ARTWORLD

NINA+SABINA :
you think you know, but you have no idea!
you think you know, but you have no idea!
you think you know, but you have no idea!
you think you know, but you have no idea!
you think you know, but you have no idea!
SABINA: you work in the artworld and you consider yourself as the aristocracy of terminological inexactitude *18) *6) open the windows in your chest and let the spirits fly in and out *19)
NINA: you think you know, but you have no idea!
SABINA: i have the look of a classic and enough room for a laptop which makes me very “modern woman” *20)
NINA: you have a tiny nose, like the nose of a child. i like your bottom-teeth and how you can see the silver when you talk. i like your little socks … an’ i like the little lines that your sock makes in your ankles. tiny red dot on your chin – tiny red dot on your breastbone. i like your nails, they’re big like shells. i like the tiny bit of white at the tip. the o in the centre of your finger, just where the jewel of a ring would go
SABINA: (snap) disappears

HERMETIC DECORATION

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NOTES

*1) “The GIRLFRIENDS were portraits.
They were pictures of the way I wished I could be.
Maybe it’s a kind of stupid desire”

RICHARD PRINCE

*2) GIRLFRIENDS by NINA YUEN and SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN
concept and edited by SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN
music SUNDAY MORNING GOGI DZODZUASHVILI and LG K800-phone
*3) Dean Mayo Davies in i-D “the manhood issue” february 2009
*4) TV series “Big Love”
*5) Nick Kramer Pauline Gallery Boothle Booth – Booth : Deux Doox
*6) Alexander Haig
“that’s not a lie, it’s a terminological inexactitude. also, a tactical misrepresentation”
*7) Italo Zucchelli
“i’ve long been breathing this level of taste. it’s something that i relate to very easily. it comes naturally to me”
*8) Wendell Berry
A meeting
In a dream I meet
my dead friend. He has,
I know, gone long and far,
and yet he is the same
for the dead are changeless.
They grow no older.
It is I who have changed,
grown strange to what I was.
Yet I, the changed one,
ask: “How you been?”
He grins and looks at me.
“I been eating peaches
off some mighty fine trees.”
*9) movie “return of the living dead” 1985
*10) movie “evil dead 2” 1987
*11) movie “return of the living dead 3” 1993
*12) movie “dead riot” 2005
*13) jake m. johnson
*14) movie “shaun of the dead” 2004
*15) “semio-sex” by dan graham in “live” (about lydia lunch) 1982
*16) “semio-sex” by dan graham in “live” (about siouxie) 1982
*17) jeremy abbott in i-D “the manhood issue” february 2009
*18) “men in art” by xerxes cook in i-D “the manhood issue” february 2009
*19) Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī 13th century
*20) british Vogue june 2009